Officials are probing how a 51-year-old highway bridge came to collapse in the Italian port city of Genoa yesterday, killing at least 26 people and injuring 16 others as it sent dozens of vehicles tumbling into a heap of concrete and twisted steel.

Pressure on states to reach homeless deal

The federal housing minister has stepped up the pressure on the states to reach a new deal to tackle homelessness, after a new report showed more than 19,000 Australians sleep in crisis accommodation each night.

The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) report released on Tuesday also found one in 98 Australians needed the help of homeless services providers during the last financial year.

Housing minister Brendan O'Connor is currently renegotiating a federal agreement with the states and territories on housing and homelessness services.

"(When) a lot of people think about homelessness, they think about the bloke with the beard and the bottle under the bridge, but really many times it is women sleeping with their kids in cars; it's children on the streets," he told Seven Network.

The national partnership on homelessness was due to expire on June 30, 2013, but has been extended for a year.

Mr O'Connor says it is important a longer-term agreement is negotiated, and that he is waiting on the states and territories to get back to him.

AIHW spokesman Geoff Neideck said a major cause of homelessness in Australia was domestic violence.

The organisation's report identified 128,378 people using homeless services were at risk of living on the streets.

Children under the age of 17 made up 29 per cent of that total, with kids under 10 accounting for 17 per cent.

Young people aged 18-24 had the highest level of need, with one in every 56 accessing services.

Young women in that age group had an even higher representation, at one in 42.

Overall, Victoria had the highest number - 76,590 - of people needing help, followed by NSW (53,532) and Queensland (42,930).

However, the Northern Territory and ACT had more people seeking services relative to their populations.

Indigenous people were over-represented in the overall count of people seeking homeless services.